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It has long been expected that the coexistence of ferroelectric and ferrovalley polarizations in one magnetic semiconductor could offer the possibility to revolutionize electronic devices. In this study, monolayer and bilayer YI 2 are studied. Monolayer YI 2 is a ferromagnetic semiconductor and exhibits a valley polarization up to 105 meV. All of the present bilayer YI 2 regardless of stacking orders show antiferromagnetic states. Interestingly, the bilayer YI 2 with 3R-type stackings shows not only valley polarization but also unexpected ferroelectric polarization, proving the concurrent ferrovalley and multiferroics behaviors. Moreover, the valley polarization of 3R-type bilayer YI 2 can be reversed by controlling the direction of ferroelectric polarization through an electric field or manipulating the magnetization direction using an external magnetic field. The amazing phenomenon is also demonstrated in 2D van der Waals LaI 2 and GdBr 2 bilayers. A design idea of multifunctional devices is proposed based on the concurrent ferrovalley and multiferroics characteristics.
Wu et al. (Mon,) studied this question.